The panel of outside advisers to the FDA voted unanimously to recommend a booster shot for seniors, as well as younger adults with other health problems, jobs or living situations that put them at increased risk from COVID-19.
The International Monetary Fund called Thursday for greater efforts from wealthy nations to boost COVID vaccination rates in poorer countries, while also urging the Federal Reserve and other central banks to respond quickly if current inflation pressures prove not to be transitory.
Statewide hospitalizations due to COVID-19 decreased from 1,708 on Tuesday to 1,634 on Wednesday, the lowest number since Aug. 17.
FDA scientists didn’t reach a firm conclusion about whether there’s enough evidence for J&J boosters, citing shortcomings with the company’s data and little information on protection against the extra-contagious delta variant.
Statewide hospitalizations due to COVID-19 decreased from 1,729 on Monday to 1,708 on Tuesday. More than 21% of Indiana’s intensive care unit beds are occupied by COVID patients.
On Thursday, advisers are expected to consider data supporting a third shot of Moderna, which would be the equivalent of a half-dose of the original shot. The booster would be administered at least six months after initial vaccination.
The state health department’s tracking shows Indiana giving about 6,000 shots a day through last week—about half the rate from early September.
Statewide hospitalizations due to COVID-19 dipped from 1,746 on Sunday to 1,729 on Monday.
On Thursday and Friday, the FDA convenes its independent advisers for the first stage in the process of deciding whether extra doses of the two vaccines should be dispensed and, if so, who should get them and when.
The Indiana State Department of Healthreported 1,114 new cases of COVID-19, raising the pandemic total in the state to 987,164 cases.
More than half of 4,000 restaurant operators surveyed in September by the National Restaurant Association say that business conditions are worse now than three months ago.
The total number of doses being administered in the U.S. is climbing toward an average of 1 million per day, almost double the level from mid-July.
Indiana University Health, the state’s largest hospital system, recently hired 700 traveling nurses to work in its 16 hospitals under 13-week contracts.
The state released the latest statistics for so-called breakthrough cases, hospitalizations and deaths on Thursday.
U.S. employers added just 194,000 jobs in September, a second straight tepid gain and evidence that the pandemic still has a grip on the economy with many companies struggling to fill millions of open jobs.
To an extent that has surprised economists, many people who lost or quit their jobs during the pandemic recession have yet to look for work again despite a robust economic rebound that has left many employers desperate to hire.
Indiana State Department of Health statistics show 60% of Indiana residents 18 and older are now fully vaccinated.
An Indiana state senator who spent 10 days in a hospital’s intensive care unit with COVID-19 says he stands behind his decision to not get vaccinated against the illness.
After hitting a pandemic low of 312,000 in early September, claims had risen three straight weeks, suggesting that the highly contagious delta variant was at least temporarily disrupting a recovery in jobs.
If regulators give the go-ahead, reduced-dose shots could begin within a matter of weeks for the roughly 28 million U.S. children in that age group.
